HOTELIERS TO PRESS S.D. MAYOR TO RELEASE TOURISM REVENUES

San Diego hoteliers, growing increasingly anxious about the fate of the summer tourist season, agreed Friday to step up their efforts to persuade Mayor Bob Filner to sign a contract permitting the release of millions of dollars in tourism marketing funds.

It’s been more than two weeks since representatives of the city’s Tourism Marketing District and the local hotel industry met with Filner to explain the urgency of signing the contractual agreement governing the operation of the citywide funding district.

In place for the past five years, the district was renewed late last year by the City Council for 39½ more years, enabling most hoteliers to levy a 2 percent room surcharge to finance tourism promotion.

While the hotel surcharge, approved in a vote by San Diego hotel owners, is being collected, the money can’t be released until Filner signs the contract and the council subsequently OKs the district budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

The decision to send a letter of appeal to Filner came during a Friday meeting of the marketing district board of directors, made up of local hoteliers.

Because of the continuing uncertainty over the district’s financial standing, San Diego’s Tourism Authority has had to cancel plans for a $5.4 million spring and summer advertising campaign.

“Every hotelier I know is concerned about the lack of promotion that the Tourism Authority can now provide,” said Robert Rauch, who owns two San Diego hotels and manages several others in Pacific Beach, La Jolla and Little Italy. “We’re concerned that Mayor Filner does not understand the importance of these jobs in this industry. If we don’t promote, we stand to lose some of our market share to San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Anaheim, who are spending.”

The district expects to collect about $30 million for the entire fiscal year, although more than $19.4 million of that came from the district that expired Dec. 31 and has been largely spent. An additional $11 million is expected from the newly approved district for the remainder of the fiscal year, and most of that is earmarked for the Tourism Authority’s operation and stalled advertising campaign.

Lorin Stewart, executive director of the district, said he expects the letter to Filner will be completed by Monday. “The gist of it is to impress upon him the pressing need to have the agreement signed,” Stewart said.

In a brief interview last week, Filner said he had yet to make a decision on the contract but pointed out that he had opposed the district during his mayoral campaign, believing that the hotel tax was not legal and needed to go before the electorate.

The district is also the target of two lawsuits filed late last year challenging the legality of the hotel surcharge. They assert that hotel levy is illegal because it wasn’t approved by the voters, which they say is required under Proposition 26, a statewide ballot initiative approved in 2010.

The marketing district board agreed Friday to set aside $1.5 million to defend the city against the suits.